Presenting a winding-up petition to court

You'll normally instruct a solicitor to deal with drafting and lodging the petition. You can present your winding-up petition to:

the relevant sheriff court (provided the company's share capital does not exceed £120,000 and the company's registered office has been in the sheriff court's jurisdiction for the majority of the previous 12 months)

If the court accepts your petition, they'll arrange a date for a hearing. The court has discretion in how to deal with the petition, but normally the petition is advertised once in the Edinburgh Gazette and in one or more newspapers.

The order will also be shown on the walls of the court and served on the company by sheriff officers with a period allowed for answers to be lodged within 8 days.

After 8 days, your lawyer will check with the court to see if any answers have been lodged in response to the petition.

If there aren't any, they'll send a proof of the advertisement (a notice for creditors) and ask for an interim liquidator to be appointed.

The proof of advertisement will be given to the sheriff and, if they're satisfied, they'll issue the winding up order.

If anyone responds opposing the advert or court document, the sheriff may organise a hearing to discuss matters further.